1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a patch to enhance locally fat metabolism and more particularly, to a patch to enhance locally fat metabolism, using a thermoplastic elastomer gel composition including capsaicin which is added to a thermoplastic elastomer gel forming a skin adhering layer to be applied to a specific area of a body, to generate heat and break down fat to help attain fat loss in the applied area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Peppers are used as a diet food since they are well-known to increase metabolism and help blood circulation and fat breakdown. It is also widely known that these effects of peppers are mainly caused by the action of the ingredient, capsaicin. As capsaicin has the features of causing burning sensation and relieving a pain, its use has been expanded to a pain reliever, pas, sports cream, etc. Meanwhile, the research result that the burning sensation is not only a feeling but also causes heat generation with fat breakdown has been published one after another.
When capsaicin is taken orally or applied to the skin, it derives heat generation by stimulating a receptor called Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) which is distributed in the tongue and skin. During this process, it burns brown fat and beige fat. When capsaicin stimulates TRPV1, this signal is transmitted through sympathetic nerves, to stimulate beta-adrenaline to activate Uncoupled Protein 1 (UCP1) brown fatty tissue and beige fatty tissue, to derive the heat generation. That is, only thermal energy is generated without generating kinetic energy and during this process, fat breakdown and fat burning occur.
As food culture has been westernized due to the improvement of living standard resulting from economic development, the number of overweight people has rapidly increased and accordingly lipolysis injection procedure has been widely performed. To reduce subcutaneous fat, a process for injecting aminophylline or isoproterenol has been performed as lipolysis injection since such an ingredient has the property of deriving fat breakdown by stimulating a beta-adrenaline receptor at a topical area where the ingredient, which is originally an asthma medicine, is injected. However, this injection has a problem in that an allergic reaction or adverse reaction, such as a bruise, itch, heat sensation, seizure, etc., may occur during the injection process and it is expensive.
Currently many antiobestic drugs have been sold. Korean Published Applications Nos. 2002-20305 and 2005-81984 suggest apples, yogurt, grapes, malts, germinated brown rice, beans, fermented bean paste (Cheonggukjang), etc. as diet foods for meal replacement, to control and prevent obesity. Many people, especially, women, are greatly interested in diet. Diet foods have been sold in many different forms of an oral medicine, drink, food, cream, etc. Although capsaicin and caffeine are well-known as fat breakdown materials, oral absorption may be inactivated since the active ingredients are degraded or metabolized in the liver or stomach or an excessive intake may cause an adverse a side effect. A method of applying a cream or gel lowers the continuity of the effect.
Recently, a patch-type product which is directly applied to and adheres to the skin has been rapidly developed. A patch-type product technology is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 1417952 entitled “Patch to enhance locally fat metabolism, using skin temperature-sensitive hydrogel and process for preparing the same”, in which one surface of a non-woven fabric is secured to one surface of a polyurethane film by using a glue and hydrogel is applied to the other surface of the non-woven fabric. However, this conventional art has problems in that:
First, hydrogel is a product which contains a lot of moisture by using purified water. Therefore, after opening the product, since moisture evaporates in the air, the product loses function and it has an effect only for a short time. In other words, the product cannot release the active ingredient continuously over a certain time or longer. Further, each product need to be in sealed packaging to prevent the evaporation of moisture. Furthermore, since the surface opposing to that of the non-woven fabric which is adhered to the skin is applied with polyurethane or glued with a film to prevent the evaporation of moisture, this unnecessary structure is not economical.
Second, since the active ingredient needs to be absorbed within a short time, the product has to include other ingredients, such as absorbefacient, that are not directly related to the active ingredient. In other words, the ingredient, such as sodium hydroxide, needs to be added for the solation of gel, and the ingredients, such as butylene glycol or disodium EDTA, need to be added for enhancing the absorption into the skin.
Third, the product embeds the demerit that since a lot of moisture is absorbed in hydrogel, when the moisture evaporates, it is difficult to get the desired effect. In this regard, the product may be appropriate for a mask pack or cosmetics to be used for a short time for beauty treatment but it is not proper for a patch to enhance locally fat metabolism, which is to be worn for a long time (more than several hours) or to be tightly secured to the skin area which moves a lot.
Fourth, since the adhesion of hydrogel is weak, when a user applying the patch exercises or moves a lot, the patch falls off. If an adhesive element is further added to ensure strong adhesion, it is hard to peel off the patch from the skin, causing pain and skin problems on the area applied with the patch.